Photos: High-profile acquittals

Updated 2:49 PM ET, Tue November 19, 2013

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High-profile acquittals – Jurors acquitted George Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges on July 13 in the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin. The case gained national attention and sparked public outcry. Look back at other high-profile cases that have ended in acquittals.

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High-profile acquittals – Amanda Knox reacts to the announcement of her acquittal in 2011. She had been serving a 26-year sentence after being convicted in 2009 of murdering fellow student Meredith Kercher. In 2013, Italy's Supreme Court ruled that Knox should stand trial in the case again. That retrial has begun, though Knox is not there: She decided to stay in the United States.

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High-profile acquittals – Casey Anthony covers her face in an Orange County, Florida, courtroom in 2011 after hearing she was not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter in the death of her 2-year-old daughter.

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High-profile acquittals – Musician R. Kelly leaves a Cook County, Illinois, courthouse in 2008 after being acquitted of child pornography charges. Prosecutors accused him of making a sex tape with an underage female.

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High-profile acquittals – Michael Jackson, flanked by family members, waves after his 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges in Santa Maria, California. If convicted, the late pop icon would have faced nearly 20 years in prison. Jackson died in June 2009 while getting ready for a new tour.

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High-profile acquittals – Former TV star Robert Blake reacts in a Los Angeles courtroom in 2005 after hearing the announcement of his acquittal. Blake faced murder charges in the death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

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High-profile acquittals – Rapper Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, is embraced by his former bodyguard McKinley Lee in 1996 after they were both acquitted of murder charges in the shooting death of an alleged gang member. Ironically, a music video released before the trial for the song "Murder Was the Case" features Snoop as a man who kills someone in self-defense and is then convicted of murder.

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High-profile acquittals – "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit," a defense attorney said during O.J. Simpson's 1995 murder trial. Simpson put on gloves that prosecutors had introduced as evidence. Eventually, jurors did acquit the former NFL star in the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was later found liable in a civil trial and ordered to pay $24.7 million in compensatory damages. He is now in a Nevada prison following his conviction on kidnapping, armed robbery and other charges related to a 2007 incident in Las Vegas.

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High-profile acquittals – "Can we all get along?" Rodney King asked that question in 1992 after white Los Angeles police officers -- Stacey Koon, Laurence Michael Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Briseno, who were charged in King's 1991 videotaped beating -- were acquitted, sparking riots in L.A. and other U.S. cities. In 2012, authorities determined that King died in an accidental drowning at age 47.

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High-profile acquittals – William Kennedy Smith expresses relief after his 1991 acquittal on sexual assault and battery charges. A woman had accused Smith, a nephew of then-Sen. Edward Kennedy, of attacking her at the family's estate in Palm Beach, Florida.